Mike Collins: Republican for Senate

Mike Collins is a US Representative running as the Republican nominee for Senate in Georgia. First running for office successfully in 2021-2022, Collins has built his political base through explicit and sustained election denial. He campaigned on conspiracy theories about Trump’s 2020 Georgia loss and the January 6 Capitol insurrection and, since taking office, has expressed that conspiracism through his support for new restrictions on voting rights and approval of Trump’s attempts to put federal pressure on Georgia election officials.

Worst moments:

• Campaigned for his current office with a video where he claims Trump rightfully won Georgia in 2020 and opens fire on a voting machine.
• Consistently attempts to portray January 6 insurrectionists as peaceful protestors who were treated unjustly, even directly telling a participant who had been convicted on felony counts that he supports monetary compensation for rioters who were “wronged by their government.”
• Vocal supporter of Trump’s attempts to put federal pressure on Georgia election officials, including the raid on Fulton County election offices.

History of election denial

Collins entered politics in the post-2020 environment and built his first successful congressional campaign around taking advantage of election denial. At his September 2021 launch he was already calling for the removal of Georgia's electronic voting equipment and for an “audit” of a 2020 election that had already been counted three separate times. Collins ramped up his denialism in a campaign video posted in January 2022. The video features Collins, carrying a gun, saying: “You count the legal votes that were cast in the state of Georgia? Donald Trump won this state, period.” He then opens fire on a prop voting machine. Bloomberg reported that Collins used stolen-election content to grow his Facebook engagement, with such posts outperforming his average by more than six times. Collins has continued to stand by his repetitions of false conspiracies deep into the 2026 campaign. After securing the nomination, Collins said of Georgia in 2020: “Trump won that race.” Trump's endorsement emphasized election denial as a reason for MAGA voters to support Collins, attacking primary rival Derek Dooley for having said Trump lost Georgia in 2020.

Collins also began his first successful campaign by appealing to MAGA conspiracies about the January 6 insurrection. Appearing at the “Justice for J6” rally in Washington, Collins referred to jailed January 6 defendants as political prisoners. In January 2025, on the fourth anniversary of the attack, Collins posted a revisionist account describing insurrectionists as “peaceful grandmothers” who “walked to the Capitol to peacefully protest the certification" before being “hunted down” and “treated unjustly.” Back here in reality, rioters forced their way in, lawmakers evacuated or sheltered, damage ran into the millions, and one person died that day with other deaths following. At an August 2026 campaign event, a January 6 participant convicted of two felonies asked whether Collins would back the administration's roughly $1.8 billion “weaponization” compensation fund or similar relief. Collins answered: “That's easy, yes.” While a Collins spokesperson attempted to partially walk the statement back, the campaign stood by the position that some January 6 defendants had been “wronged by their government” and deserved a payout.

Perhaps most disturbingly, Collins has supported federal action targeting Georgia’s election administration. In January 2026, the FBI executed a warrant at Fulton County's election office to seize all 2020 physical ballots, ballot images, and voter rolls. The unsealed affidavit shows the bureau investigating whether “intentional acts” caused discrepancies in the count of over 520,000 ballots, despite years of audits finding no intentional wrongdoing. It came a week after Trump said people would soon be prosecuted over 2020. Collins vocally supported the raid and directed his public response at Trump’s FBI director, saying: “Go get 'em, Kash.”

Influence over election administration

As a Representative, Collins has been a consistent supporter of Republican attempts to restrict ballot access, a pattern he would almost certainly continue if elected to the Senate. Collins cosponsored and has repeatedly voted for and asked the Senate to pass the SAVE Act and the SAVE America Act, a pair of restrictive voting bills that could disenfranchise millions of eligible American voters, disproportionately affecting women. Collins is also among the cosponsors of Bryan Steil's Make Elections Great Again Act, which would require photo ID to vote, citizenship verification to register, mandate that mail ballots be received by poll close on Election Day, and require auditable paper ballots. It was introduced as Trump urged Republicans to “nationalize” voting and take over election administration in several states.

If elected, Collins would also have the ability to do significant damage as a state-level voice in support for the Trump administration’s concentration of federal election-interference pressure on Georgia. Collins has vocally aligned himself with the federal government rather than with Georgia officials, some of whom have publicly worried the raid could be used to justify a takeover of Fulton County's elections in 2026. Both of Georgia’s current Senators have condemned federal pressure on the state, and a reversal by Collins would lend legitimacy and credibility to Trump’s efforts to wield government power to keep himself from losing again.